Boaz Weinstein gives London funds necessary jolt
09/01/2026 10:22
Corrects third paragraph to reflect that SpaceX is 15.9% of fund assets currently. The author is a Reuters Breakingviews columnist. The opinions expressed are his own. By Neil Unmack LONDON, Jan 9 (Reuters Breakingviews) - Boaz Weinstein is giving sleepy London some much-needed shock therapy. The U.S. hedge fund manager wants to replace the board of a listed company run by Baillie Gifford. It gives investors in other UK funds a governance jolt. Weinstein in 2024 launched an attack on seven investment trusts, a kind of listed closed-end fund, as part of a strategy of targeting vehicles trading at a discount to the value of their assets, and prodding them to return capital or wind down. After last year's attempt, he now wants to replace the entire board at 785-million-pound ($1.05 billion) Edinburgh Worldwide Investment Trust (EWIT) EWI.L, in which he owns a 30% stake. He argues that the company has underperformed peers, and that its board of directors hasn't done enough to hold the fund manager Baillie Gifford to account. Weinstein has tweaked his approach over time. Rather than trying to install one of his own managers, he is now proposing a slate of entirely third-party candidates. Yet the spat has still become heated. Weinstein's fund criticised the record of some of EWIT’s directors, and accused them of looking after their own interests by proposing a merger with another trust, and destroying value by trimming a stake in Elon Musk's SpaceX that accounts for 15.9% of the fund's assets. EWIT’s board has said that Weinstein is making the trust’s performance look worse than it is, and reckons he wants to manage it to boost Saba's assets. EWIT has hardly shot the lights out over the last five years. Yet Saba's demand to replace the entire board could be disruptive at a time when the trust's performance is picking up: it has grown its net asset value by 16% over the past year, handily beating its benchmark. Its 7% discount in early January is around half the markdown suffered by the wider sector, suggesting other shareholders are more relaxed than Weinstein. Trimming SpaceX was arguably justifiable on diversification grounds. While Weinstein's main aim is probably to get the fund to return capital, he has not denied any ambition to run the trust, leaving him open to the critique that he is trying to boost his own assets under management. The U.S. hedgie may still have a chance. One variable is how the army of individual shareholders votes. They account for half of EWIT's shares. Weinstein's 30% means he'll win unless a material number of retail investors vote at a January 20 meeting. Shareholder attendance at annual meetings has been as low as 25%. EWIT's board has launched a campaign to get the trust’s 20,000-odd individual investors to pay attention, in order to make sure turnout is higher this time. That speaks to a bigger problem in the London market. Retail investors rarely vote. Many hold their shares through platforms with slow, cumbersome voting systems. Win or lose, the campaign will likely spook fund managers and other directors, and prod investors to pay closer attention in future. Weinstein, in his own fashion, may be doing London a favour. Follow @Unmack1 on X. CONTEXT NEWS Shareholders of UK-listed investment group Edinburgh Worldwide Investment Trust will on January 20 decide whether to replace the board, following a requisition by top shareholder Saba Capital. Saba on January 7 reiterated its criticism of EWIT’s board, arguing that the company destroyed shareholder value by selling down its stake in Elon Musk’s SpaceX too soon. The New York-based hedge fund wants to replace EWIT’s entire board with three new directors, following what it argues it a period of sustained underperformance. EWIT said on January 9 that proxy adviser Glass Lewis has recommended that shareholders vote against all the Saba resolutions at the general meeting. London investment trusts have stopped growing https://www.reuters.com/graphics/BRV-BRV/jnvwkrrbzvw/chart.png (Editing by Liam Proud; Production by Shrabani Chakraborty) ((For previous columns by the author, Reuters customers can click on UNMACK/neil.unmack@thomsonreuters.com))